Consonance
by bombalurima
Summary: A series of long-ish drabble-ish stories about Mai and Katara and the close friendship the two come to form. Kataang/Maiko/ but mostly sisterhood : Rated for later references


**A/N: This is a small series of stories (I think they're too long to be drabbles) written about the friendship between Mai and Katara. I think they have great potential to become fantastic friends someday, and I wanted to explore the relationship between the two. Of course, there'll be Maiko and Kataang throughout. The fact that their boyfriends (and later, husbands) are the two most important men in the world only serves as another bond between the two. **

**Anyway, enjoy this first part! Please take the time to review, if possible. It's nice to see a lot of story traffic and whatnot, but reviews really are the best thing any author on here could ask for. Thanks so much!**

* * *

When they first met, not as enemies, but as allies, in Iroh's little tea shop in Ba Sing Se, it was nothing if not awkward, to say the least.

"Katara, this is Mai…" Zuko introduced the two girls, his hand locked with his girlfriend's and a small smile on his face. "Mai—Katara. I, uh, don't know if you two have ever-"

"Oh, we've met," Mai and Katara finished his unfinished statement in unison.

That was when they both felt it, for the first time.

A connection.

* * *

It was only to be expected.

Aang wanted to stick around in the Fire Nation for a few days, or as long as he was needed, really. Zuko and he had plenty of meetings to attend, compromises to be made, treaties to be drawn up.

Toph and Sokka had left the palace and headed into town to go shopping. Suki was gone, back to Kyoshi Island with her new comrade Ty Lee in tow. It was still hard for Katara to acknowledge the bubbly pink blur that was Ty Lee as an ally, as maybe even a future friend. She had brushed up against her too many times in battle to be truly comfortable around her yet.

The same went for another girl as well, but that was something she wasn't sure just _what _to think about yet.

With no one to talk to and nothing much to do, Katara wandered outside the palace to one of the many courtyards. It was sun-lit, warm and open, and she figured it was a good as place as any to sit in and let a few lazy hours unfold as she waited for Aang to get out of his meeting.

However, she hadn't counted on anyone else being there.

A flurry of knives flew from seemingly nowhere directly at her, launching toward her at what looked like fifty miles a minute. With a yelp, Katara managed to duck the blades, but not before several of the set severed a few strands of her hair off.

"Oh…" Mai appeared as suddenly as her knives had, the wary look on her face slowly fading back to its usual uninterested mask. "It's only you."

"_Only me?" _Katara had obviously recovered from the initial shock of the assault as she spat, "You could have _killed _me!"

"And wouldn't that have been a shame?" Mai asked dryly, arching a cool, thin eyebrow.

Katara spluttered for a moment, mouthing silently (but as angrily) as she possibly could at the other girl before snapping, "Do you _always _greet people like that?"

"Only if they sneak up on me," Mai answered, crouching down to scoop up her fallen weapons, pulling a strand of Katara's brown hair off of the tip of one with a fairly disgusted look on her face.

"I didn't—how was I-"

"Look." Mai straightened up again, surveying Katara through sharp yellow eyes. "I don't want to argue about something as stupid as this. It's pointless. Leave me alone so I can train again."

"You're…training?" Despite herself, Katara couldn't help but ask the question. Her annoyance was still pulsing underneath her skin like a second bloodstream, but curiousity couldn't help but stir up in the mix as well.

"Yes," Mai answered dully, before pivoting on her heel and marching away. Katara, after a minute of furious internal debate, decided there really _was _nothing better to do, and that she might as well…

Her feet pattered after the other girl's, and she was just in time to see Mai push the long billow of her sleeve up to her elbow, exposing the spring-loaded holster there. She expertly checked to make sure each little dart inside was in order, and return the knives that she had thrown at Katara back into their place, evidently in miniature holsters of their own on the inside of the sleeve itself.

Katara watched in faint awe as the older girl took a stance, and let the darts fly. Clear on the other end of the courtyard, lined up in a neat little row on the railing along the bordering hallway, was a row of apples, tantalizingly red in the gleam of the sunlight. Each dart hit its mark—seven apples now had seven weapons protruding from each of them, bleeding juice like tiny, wounded soldiers.

Katara wanted to open her mouth to say something, just what, she wasn't exactly sure, but Mai moved first. She moved as quick as the darts she had just fired, a dark blur across the courtyard as she tossed, shot, aimed, fired, and struck with all the deadly precision and speed of an adder.

It was almost breath-taking the way this girl moved, with a kind of terrible elegance and beauty somehow, despite the fact that she was throwing weapons and impaling apples and other various targets around the courtyard left, right, and center.

In those moments, Katara was just as afraid of her as she was that time, so long ago, when the same girl had used her blades to pin Katara's wrists to a tree, holding her in place. Then, she had been scared.

She was now as well. But she was also mesmerized.

Finally, the barrage ended, and Mai stilled, the adder coiling back into its dormant resting position.

She inhaled slowly, and then exhaled, her chest rising and falling with each quickened breath that she took.

Katara cleared her throat, and Mai turned her head, her golden eyes now lit, still glowing with the heat of the imagery battle, nothing but the look of a predator in her gaze.

"That was…something else," Katara piped, feeling as articulate as Zuko. She could have said _something _that better conveyed her wonder, her fear, and yes…her admiration. Or maybe she couldn't have. She doubted she could find the right words.

A small smirk graced the other girl's pale face, and she inclined her head slightly, a small gesture of gratitude.

"Thank you. From what I've seen, you're not too bad yourself…I've heard that your Waterbending's quite impressive."

"Well, that's not really my place to say…" Katara couldn't help but flush slightly, as she always did whenever someone praised her Bending.

"No, but it could be mine," Mai countered. She paused for a beat, and then suggested, her voice would-be casual, "Maybe I could watch _you _train instead…"

"Really?" Katara blinked, taken aback.

"Of course," Mai shrugged, the smile back on her face. "Why wouldn't I? It seems interesting enough."

"And then you can decide for yourself which one of us would come out on top in a fight," Katara issued the challenge before she realized it, and instantly wanted to take the words back. But there was no way that was possible—she had to stick by the dare she had proposed now.

"As long as you're willing to put my theory to the test," Mai responded, and Katara sucked in her breath. Was this girl afraid of _anything? _She had heard about Mai's actions at the Boiling Rock prison, how she had saved Zuko (and Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda too, though unknowingly) from Azula, how she had put her life on the line for his. Katara doubted that there was anything in the world that frightened her now.

"I am," Katara lifted her chin, and the two girls' eyes met, pale gold meeting pure blue for a moment.

"You've got yourself a deal."

Mai and Katara got their spar that same day, their mock battle taking place under the bleeding sky of sunset.

It was an even match—each girl was quick, and kept well on her toes. Katara had nearly gotten pierced by several knives, a few bits of her clothes parting company with the rest as sharp blades flew past, and Mai was looking a little drenched from the various gusts of water she had been hit by, none strong or fast enough to knock her off of her feet.

It could have gone on all night—and probably would have—had it not been for the arrival of two of the most important people in each of their respective lives.

"Mai?" Zuko ogled at his damp-looking girlfriend, his hair swept out of his face in a top-knot so the confusion on his face was plain to see.

"Katara!" Aang's voice sounded surprised, though not necessarily angry.

"What are you two _doing!" _Zuko demanded.

Mai and Katara glanced at each other. The Waterbender rubbed a scratch on her arm that was bleeding a bit, where a shuriken had just nicked her. The knife-thrower swiped a strand of dripping wet hair out of her face and shivered slightly.

"Bonding," They answered in unison.

Zuko and Aaang decided to leave it as it was.


End file.
